SAMMIE KESCOLI BEGAY CANDELARIA TURQUOISE INGOT COIN SILVER ROW BRACELET
This superb bracelet by Sammie Begay was created by melting old American sterling silver coins and casting them into an ingot. The ingot is then rolled and hammered into a heavy shank. The technique requires multiple annealings as well and is time consuming and labor intensive. The shank is then deeply hand stamped in Sammie’s signature style prior to the bezels being created. An amazing fifteen dazzling turquoise gems were set down the center of the piece. The natural gems are from one of Nevada’s classic turquoise mines, Candelaria, located in north central Nevada. Candelaria of this quality is considered to be one of the most rare, collectible and valuable forms in the turquoise world. The deep translucent blue gems have rich reddish-brown matrix signature to the mine. They are set in a modified cluster based on the classic old pawn bracelets of the 1940s.
